Extremists 'Tap into Gang Mentality of Young Males'

Extremists 'Tap into Gang Mentality of Young Males'

Article excerpt

COMMUNITY worker Ismael Lea South first started doing 'interventions' on radicalised youth after his nephew and a group of his friends were jailed for robbery.

While inside, 'nine of ten of them converted to Islam'. When he came out, his nephew told him 'there are some people here into crazy Islam, they are teaching us that you can rob and kill in the name of Islam because you are in the land of the unbelievers'.

Ismael said: "You have disaffected youngsters who come from countries that have been invaded and colonised by Britain, and feel 'I can't get a job because my name is Mohammed'. Then you have extremists pushing this rhetoric of victimhood. They tell them this is a racist, corrupt society and you can never achieve anything. It becomes a self-fufilling prophecy, that you can't achieve anything. …